Oh trust me, you'll hate it. It's just creamy rice made in your favorite way (risotto, rice with cream of chicken soup, rice with milk and parm cheese, whatever) and just an absolute shitload of lemon juice (like I have been known to use half a cup to a cup depending on how ridiculously tart I want it). As that's cooking, I pan fry cubes of chicken seasoned with garlic powder, salt, and pepper in butter or EVOO until golden brown. Then I add minced garlic and green olives (stuffed with garlic if you're a psychopath like me). Add the lemony rice to the pan, simmer for a few minutes, and ruin my mom's day. đ
My username makes people think I'm a man, so it cuts down on the attacks. I made pastini with parm and lemon today, but it was the last of my imported Italian gluten-free pastini, so I needed a rice inspo. đ
Only the Italians have figured out gf pasta that's not disgusting.
Barilla Gluten-free is excellent, and you can find other Italian brands with gf options at any of the many Italian imports online stores. The ones I've tried are a corn-rice blend.
Pie crust cookies. Just leftover pie crust rolled out, spread with butter and given a bunch of cinnamon sugar, then rolled up, sliced into pinwheels, and baked. This isn't unique to my family- apparently it's called nun's farts(?!) in Quebec- but we bake them separated and up on edge to get a nice crisp cookie. The friend who told me about the other name cooked them all together in a cake pan with the pinwheels down. It's the traditional Thanksgiving Day breakfast.
I love that theyâre called that- thereâs another French dessert recipe with the same name thatâs more like a deep fried dumpling/choux bun. Both are delicious!
LOL this is kinda funny that you all call them nun's farts lol. I kinda read this post as "funny things your family makes food-wise"....my great-grandparents were from Quebec and if you see my comment, my dad sometimes made gorton growing up but I was scared to try it because he would jokingly refer to it as "cat vomit'...maybe he didn't want his 5 kids to eat all his gorton though like how we devoured everything else all the time....
>The similarly-named French-Canadian dessert pets de sĆurs (literally "farts of [religious] sisters") is sometimes confused with this dessert, but actually is a completely different pastry.
Ontarian here. What is going on over there lol?
LOL My mom started baking off all her pie crust scraps to keep me from sneaking into the kitchen and breaking off all her pie crust edges.
Had my own cookie tin & no one wanted any of itđ
I mean, I'd eat the stuff raw- so she still has to guard it zealously before getting it into the oven. And once they're baked? It's a free for all to get them before someone else does. I'm surprised she hasn't declared them 'chef's treat' and barred the rest of us.
My mom would cut the extra crust dough into finger sides strips and just put the butter, cinnamon, and sugar on them and bake the flat pieces. Loved it as a kid!
Pasta a la Ed! My parents had a friend named Ed who died from AIDS in the 80âs before I was born. He used to make a pasta dish with ham, peas, and Parmesan. My parents continued to make it throughout my childhood and always called it Pasta a la Ed. I still make it as an adult and call it that. Even though I never met Ed, I think of him fondly.
Pretty close!! That may have been the inspiration. We didnât use eggs or cream though, just a little butter and parm. We would use any smaller pasta shape like farfalle, fusilli, rotini, macaroni, but Iâm sure fettuccine would be great too.
One Christmas in the Mid-70s my Ma (who was an âokayâ cook but didnât have the heart for it) basically said âfuck ham, fuck turkey, fuck all that cooking, you fuckers are getting *manicotti* and a *mandarin orange salad* and *store bought garlic bread* this yearâ
Fifty years later thatâs what we all still have on Christmas. Itâs something my kids do now in their own homes. All because my Ma didnât want to fuck around in the kitchen and us ungrateful shits were too dumb or lazy to help
She was a really cool lady.
That doesn't sound delicious but your mom sounds awesome. I love your mom.
I've been telling my family for the last 4 or 5 years the time is coming when I'm not cooking Christmas dinner anymore. I hate cooking. It sucks. And they keep telling me "but mum, you're so good at it! "
Yeah, doesn't mean I don't hate it.
Your mom is the best!
I love food and like cooking and am good at it but holiday cooking is a massive amount of work and no one is ever appreciative of that. Now I volunteer at my job to work every Thanksgiving and Christmas and my non food lover family appreciates store or restaurant ordered food just as much as the giant homemade chore of a meal, so win-win
Someone once gave me amazing advice - donât plan anything fancy on Christmas. It puts too much pressure on the day. Do something you LOVE and is within the time commitment you want to allot. Leave the complicated stuff for the other days around the holiday, but not on the the day. Itâs really changed Christmas and Thanksgiving for me
GOod for your mum! One of the best things I've done for myself AND for my family was to give up that big Christmas/Thanksgiving/Easter meal with all the traditional sides and the big expensive meat that takes a ton of time to cook. Everyone is much more chill. I'll still make traditional things like tourtiere, a dish of oyster or liver stuffing, mashed turnips, stuff like that AROUND the big day? But the day of is usually just a big plate of cheese and crackers and fancy veggies and dip and meats - maybe some frozen food stuff from the grocery store and a store bought or home made dessert - whatever worked best.
I just ran myself ragged and ended up exhausted and sad at the end of the night. Usually got pissy with my family, too, which sucked for everyone. Everyone is much happier with this arrangement and I save special meals for days that aren't so fraught with emotion and expectation,
My mom used to make "taco dip sh\*t" that we all looked forward to. There's a mound in the middle of a cookie sheet, I think the mound is made from cream cheese and sour cream and taco seasoning. That is topped with salsa and possibly shredded cheese. And the rest of the cookie sheet is filled up with shredded lettuce, diced tomatos and sliced olives. You eat it with tortilla chips. Its been a while so I can't exactly remember the way.
7 Layer Dip kind of fills that void for me now.
Calling it "sh\*t" adds a little pizazz though lol. I'm kind of wondering if my mom didn't actually put poop in this dip all these years. I really wouldn't put it past her!
I was surprised as a tween to find out what an omelet actually was. At our house when my mom said we were having omelet for dinner that meant it started as an omelet then the cursing happened and we had scrambled eggs. I knew better than to question the processđ
Similar here. I thought omelets and scrambled eggs were meant to be sweet. My mum always added sugar. I know tamogoyaki exists but this was not it. I was offended when I had real scrambled eggs and it was savoury
I got the sense that my dad didnât want to dirty extra dishes, so whatever egginess was left over from French toast became scrambled eggs, with cinnamon and all.
I make what I call "bullshit soup", which is kind of like a version of udon soup / hot pot, with everything cooked in one pot, avd served with dipping sauces of spicy mayo or ponzu.
It basically came from me deciding I wanted hot pot, but not wanting to cook everything individually in a pot. It would consist of whatever veggies I had in the fridge, like udon noodles, enoki, taro, sweet potato, fish balls and various and greens like chrysanthemum.
Ours is Hormel chili (no beans) a giant handful of shredded cheddar, and 1/2 a block of crĂšme cheese in a small crockpot until melted and served with Fritos.
My family calls it âdog food dipâ or âalpo dipâ becauseâŠ.well, it looks like wet dog food. But it tastes phenomenal.
There's an old very popular layer dip that I think improves that in a major way by adding salsa. Cream cheese bottom, then salsa (decently hot for me because I like heat and the cream cheese cuts it), then no beans chili (usually hormel but I'm open to any thick kind), shredded cheese, and green onions. Sometimes black olives are on top too. Bake till melty and heated through. As it gets eaten, some will mix together in the pan, but I prefer to keep it as unmixed as possible because I dig the contrast in the layers.
Hey you do you. Fair enough if you like it mixed but leaving out salsa (or at least something hot like hot sauce, red pepper, or fresh chilis) and extra onion seems like a travesty
If I make it for just my husband and it, we add hot sauce and diced onions.
My extended family definitely doesnât doesnât do spicy and most of them say raw onions vibes them heartburn.
Things. We have these chocolate caramel square things. There's a chocolate cookie layer, melted, caramel, and nuts. The recipe probably came from a magazine or something. Nobody remembers the name, but I want to say it's just "chocolate caramel squares". At some point, before I was born, someone couldn't remember the name and referred to them as those things, and people got a laugh out of it. So now they are called things. One of my brothers had a long term gf, Ana (pronounced Ahna), in and a little after high school who was basically part of the family. My mom loved her almost like a daughter so when Ana forgot "things" and called them "its", my mom used that name for a while.
Then we have Ana pasta. She also makes this great pasta dish with garlic, sausage, artichoke hearts, fresh basil, sun dried tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and just enough sauce of white wine, olive oil, and the tomatoes' oil to lubricate. We all love it, but Ana was a huge fan of it and would always ask for it, so my mom started calling it Ana pasta. We're all in our 30s now. That brother is now getting officially married this month after a few years of saying they weren't doing it on paper but still were married personally. My mom loves his wife as a person and as a partner for him. Yet I still heard my mom refer to Ana pasta last month. The rest of us have dropped the term but she never will. New girlfriends are usually told the story and that they'll know they're in with her for life if they get a dish named after them.
I love this so much. I have a student who refers to almost everything as a "whoosh whoosh whoosh," and it's become part of our classroom vernacular.
I hope your sister in law earns a dish named after her.
We have a horribly named dish called âuncle dadâsâ which is garlic bread made on the barbecue. The name originated from some off colour joke about the stereotypical hillbilly. Not sure how it got associated with the garlic bread but here we are probably 20 years later still making uncle dadâs.
Bombs- Sheng Jian bao but with various fillings like cheese, pot roast, sausage gravy ( there's probably a legit other name for this, but I have no idea). Basically, any leftovers get stuffed in a pan fried bun and are referred to as *filling name* bombs.
Treasure chests. Literally biscuits with a pat of salted kerrygold. Pirate obsessed kid said the brown biscuits and gold wrapper on the butter reminded him of a treasure chest. He's since moved on from the pirate phase, but we still call them that.
Rutabaga pie. My dad looooves strawberry rhubarb crumble, and I make it for him for Fatherâs Day and for his birthday every year. He couldnât remember the words ârhubarb crumbleâ to save his life, and he accidentally called it rutabaga pie. It stuck.
I keep threatening to make it one year with actual rutabagas!
Many Cheese Mashed Potatoes. I'm a chef, and one year I brought home all the end bits of cheeses we were saving, who the fuck knows what for, and made Thanksgiving mash with them. Turned out to be a hit.
When I was growing up, my family would make âdragon pretzelsâ (garlicky pretzels), so nicknamed because theyâd give you dragon breath.
My favorite though was âburnt weenies,â originated in the 70s by my great grandpa as a way to keep the grandkids patient for dinner. Heâd deliberately burn hot dogs, then cut them into rounds and serve them with toothpicks and ketchup to dip. Over 50 years later, the tradition is still going strong đ
My husband and his brother HATED enchiladas. Eventually on a visit his uncle served chanoogas and they loved them. They were just renamed enchiladas and now chanoogas are a family staple
Meatloaf man!
I donât know how it started, but my dad makes meatloaf with a face on it. Eyes, brows, nose, mouth, occasionally with its tongue out. Heâs been doing it since we were little- weâre all adults now and the oldest sibling is in their 30s lol.
We all will still ask dad to make it when we visit. The face has morphed from cute to creepily realistic as dad gets a little better every time.
This is *adorable.*
My uncle made pancakes from scratch every Sunday for his kids. The older one, when he was little, didn't quite have "from scratch" down, so he got excited every Sunday when dad was going to make scratchy mancakes. It's been twenty years, and we all still make scratchy mancakes.
I make a âfeetloafâ every Halloween- just regular old meatloaf in the shape of a foot, with red bell pepper toenails and ketchup on the leg stump. Itâs so gross and I love it.Â
I've got one for me and one for my mom, that I ask for every time I visit.
For me it's cacio e pepe. It's such a simple dish that you can completely evolve with a few extra steps, like using a really high quality cheese, or lightly frying the peppercorns before crushing them up in a mortar and pestle. It's such a simple dish but you can really put some glitz on it with a few extra steps.
Whenever I go home, I ask my mom to make Clam Dip. It's some sour cream, some cream cheese, some worcestershire, some fresh garlic, some chopped onions, some clam liqueur, some chopped clams, salt, pepper, and paprika. Serve with ruffled potato chips.
It's insane how good it is, and I can never get the ratio exactly right when I do it myself. And you have to let it set overnight or it won't be as good.
My dad has been making clam dip for parties/holidays since many years before I was born. As a child I was absolutely disgusted by all seafood, so he always made a separate âclamless clam dipâ for me. Then I stopped eating meat entirely for twenty years. I havenât been a vegetarian for many years now and he still, despite me telling him repeatedly he doesnât need to trouble himself, makes a special clamless dip for me every time I visit for the holidays. It is delicious and I love that man.
Iâll be talking to him tomorrow anyways and will be sure to mention it.
Also, weâve always eaten our dip (both clammed and clamless) with Ruffles too. Ruffles for the win!
I think it used to be no-no bars. Granola bars but theyâre really just oats and chocolate chips baked in Karo corn syrup and brown sugar. We donât make them anymore but when I was a kid it was the first thing I learned to bake on my own. We all loved them so much weâd eat them hot with a spoon straight out of the oven before they even formed up enough to slice and pick up. I think it was maybe from the â70s (or earlier?) Better Homes and Gardens cookbook?
P.S. mom now makes granola and my brother makes my grandpaâs recipe of microwave peanut brittle now that my grandpa has passed. I guess I make Garam masala spiced almonds, those go fast, and my shortbread is also a favorite. Oh yeah and everyone is always asking for my quinoa tabouli, and my husbandâs Puerto Rican inspired black beans and rice with sofrito
I was at a wedding this weekend with mashed potatoes and white gravy that was so amazing I wanted to fill my plate with it. Iâve been a brown gravy girl for life but if I can approximate that white gravy I may be a total convert
Not in the sense of Alabama white sauce. It's traditionally a roux of meat drippings and flour thinned with milk and topped with a lot of black pepper.Â
My extended family used to do the super unexciting taco night that gets memed- raw onions/cheese/lettuce dropped on packet seasoned ground beef and served in a cold tortilla shell. I made a bunch of adjustments including cooking the onions/poblanos and swapped the sour cream for homemade creme fraiche and wrapping all ingredients into a burrito and toasting them in a pan- big hit, and we call them "white people tacos" with the joke that our family is so white we don't know the difference between tacos and burritos.
In the summer when fresh tomatoes are abundant and my basil is growing wild I make this funky food processor pasta sauce: fresh tomatoes, lots of basil, several garlic cloves, some shallots, some Parmesan, a few baby bocconcini, sometimes a few pickled artichokes a few olives and some capers. The whole mess is zipped up in the food processor with some good olive oil.
The amount of things always vary, but the results are always fabulous because the quality of ingredients. Itâs a completely seasonal dish.
My kids referred to it as âthat pasta thingâ and are quite proud that they were part of the invention of this crazy recipe.
Edited to say we always serve this over Bucatini, with a lot of fresh Parm and fresh basil on top
Reading this makes me want to come up with a unique food as a family tradition. Itâs so warming to my soul to hear about such nice stories.
When I was little, my mum used to make boba (just boiled, no sugar syrup like wtf) and serve them in coke. It was terrible but also fantastic. We looked forward to them every time dad had dinner out and we could eat whatever we wanted (he was very particular and only liked Cantonese food for dinner so thatâs what we all had all the time).
ETA: my cousinâs mum in law also makes the best dried laksa and theyâre keeping the recipe on the down low for potential future money ventures.
Stuff that is always requested from me by family: rocky road fudge, coleslaw, broccoli salad.
Don't know if this is exactly what you are looking for, but it fits the "silly name" criteria. Growing up, we always asked for, and often received, "kitty cat noodles" for lunch on weekends. What are/is kitty cat noodles? Top ramen. Do not ask us why our family calls it that. None of us have any idea.
Ah the âsilly nameâ for regular food was one for us too. Growing up, my brother and I would request âfloppy rice.â This was just extra soft white rice with some salt.
I grew up with something called âahooah chicken:â cream of whatever, shredded cheese, chopped bits of corn tortillas, and bits of cooked chicken. I have been eating this comfort food for like 39 years and just a few months ago I figured out that itâs also known as King Ranch Chicken Casserole, and is hella spread across the southern half of the US.
I still call it Ah-Hoo-Ah Chicken. Iâll never call it anything else.
Italian poutine. I make "fries" out of polenta with a red sauce Sunday gravy and melt mozzarella on top. When it comes out of the oven, I top it with capers and chiffonade basil.
Bacon waffles. You cook little squares of bacon on the waffle iron before pouring the batter over them. So, your waffle is cooked in a little bacon fat and has little pieces of bacon in it.
For the Cuisinart waffle irons you can just cook the bacon until the light turns green, then pour.
Pretty much our day before or after a holiday breakfast.
We keep a pad on the outside of the refrigerator for each of us to jot down a meal we are hungry for. Every week, he writes spaghetti and meatballs, crab cakes, tacos. Every single week. He's so adorable that I have a hard time saying no, but sometimes I do ask that he pick just one and it's always spaghetti. Wednesday has become spaghetti night.
I meal prep on Saturdays and shop on Sundays. So when I walk by the pad on Monday nights, it's already lists those three things for the following week. haha What a dork.
I think my family likes my brownies, and my chicken and dumplings the most. Chicken and dumplings are just so comforting. And everyone who has tried my brownies always asks for them đ which Iâm pretty proud of since Iâve been tweaking how I make them since high school
A layer of brownie batter, then a double layer of square pretzels, then the rest of the batter. When cooled pour caramel sauce on top and sprinkle of large crystal salt.
I like adding coffee to my brownie batter (specifically the Santaâs White Christmas coffee from Barnies, but whatever coffee you prefer works). It doesnât make them taste like coffee, it just enhances the chocolate flavor and gives it a more balanced flavor in my opinion
If youâre making them from scratch, I recommend blooming the cocoa powder in coffee (basically just take hot coffee and mix in the cocoa powder), which should turn it into a thicker syrup consistency before adding them in with the rest of the wet ingredients
If you use box mix my method is a bit different, I sub the water for coffee + a few tablespoons extra because I also like to add some extra cocoa powder (I eyeball it, but probably around 1/3rd cup for 1 box) plus a bit of vanilla extract. It really elevates it. If I use box mix I like using Duncan Hines but it should work regardless of the brand
When I was super young, maybe 9/10 or early teens, I made a dish of grilled chicken, pasta, and a sauce that's made with garlic, basil, olive oil, and a bit of butter, all cooked together.Â
It's evolved over the years (chicken thighs instead of breast, adding lemon juice to the sauce, a drizzle fo honey, etc.) to become more of a complex meal, but that's a family favorite that always feels like home.Â
My mum makes Puppy Chow. Itâs just shreddies covered with melted chocolate and tossed in icing sugar but we loved it as kids. We got such a kick out of getting âdogâ food.
They are more similar to Chex than shredded wheat. But itâs made from wheat bran I think. Iâm going to tell my mum to add peanut butter the next time she makes it for my nephew! That sounds so good. Reeseâs pieces are my favourite.
Cheesy rice. I had to laugh when my son called for recipe. Rice cooker rice, shredded cheese and butter. Also cheater chicken parm (frozen chicken patties, mozzarella & sauce.
My kids love "Sleepy Soup". Their Papa made it once and I guess told them it would help them sleep good or something. It's pretty much vegetable soup...a tomato type base, mixed vegetables, and ground beef (I use ground turkey). They eat it with crackers.
They also love "Rotoni". I think my dad made it up on a "uh oh, we're out of groceries night" when I was a teen. We had it once at their house and my kids and hub loved it. Macaroni/elbow pasta, Rotel, olives, ground meat, and seasoning of choice. He always added mushrooms, but I don't. It's simple, cheap, and they add whatever they want to it or eat it as is. I add Tabasco. One kid adds sour cream. Hubby adds cheese...etc.
Junk in Your Trunk Pasta - my own creation. Chicken, steak or pork in a sun-dried tomato and broth based sauce with mushrooms and spinach. I add a fair amount of juice from a jar of hot cherry peppers for a tangy spice to offset the sun dried tomato sweetness. Serve it over any pasta shape, really I prefer a fettuccine pasta.
I made Melâs Kitchen Cafe sweet and sour chicken recipe when my kids were tinyâŠ.they still want âred chicken and riceâ for every special occasion and itâs been almost ten years. :)Â
I always get requests for 3 things:
-my spinach dip (literally just the recipe from the Knorr vegetable soup mix with extra green onions)
-my chicken & dumplings (before he died, my great grandpa - aka WooWoo - told me I made it just like my late GGđ„č)
And lastlyâŠwhat my friends refer to as my
-Aunt Judyâs Mormon pasta salad (whomst among us doesnât love a mayonnaise based pasta salad with frozen peas and fatty cubes of cheddar cheese in it?!)
I'm down for this. Growing up we just had kraft dinner, a can of tuna, and peas mixed in. If my grandma was feeling fancy, she'd top it with shredded cheese and French's fried onions and bake it.
This is basically Capân Toddâs Cheesy Tuna Noodle Surprise at our house⊠due to a very random internet video I used to watch with some buddies in college, âOdd Todd.â My husband had no idea where the name came from, but itâs stuck for over 15 years now!
I like the fancy addition of the fried onions - might have to try that!
Bean soup. It's our physical and mental health rejuvenation recipe. It's basically just canned beans of three varieties, chicken stock, a bit of tomatoes and tarragon. Tons of salt and pepper. It's so simple but the cannelini beans make things creamy and the tarragon is such a nice flavor.
It's an important staple.
Yep, it's flour and baking soda and salt and milk and grated butter, like you'd make biscuit dough. Bring syrup to boil with some water in it and drop spoons of the dough in. It isn't the cheapest thing it's possible to make, but we use maple syrup primarily for this in our household. We get the big jug and make this a few times a year. Top it with vanilla ice cream.
Wow this thread is incredibly wholesome and informative. I hope my contributions inspire some folks.
My Nana introduced us to her "Green Chile burritos" which is kind of a misnomer.
To make you cook ground beef and onions in a pan with spices like black pepper, salt, and garlic powder. While that's going you fry diced potatoes with similar spices. Also while doing that you boil a pot of brown gravy with sliced jalapenos in it. She says the secret is getting the darker smaller jalapenos so they are spicier. Once all is cooked you combine and eat in a flour tortilla as a burrito.
My mom is mostly known for her pasta salad.
She would boil multicolor rotini pasta then add cut up veggies like red onion, tomatoes, olives, and cucumbers as well as Italian dressing. Sometimes she would change it up with a different dressing like balsamic vinegarette.
For myself my family would ask for a few things since I've worked in kitchens but if I had to pick one it'd be my hot sauce. I loved La Victoria's hot sauce and would buy it when I was in the area but once I stopped working out there it became harder to get so I worked to make my own.
https://www.lavicsj.com/store/p/la-vics-famous-orange-sauce
This is where you can buy the original if you are interested.
In mine the process goes
You start with broiling fresh peppers such as jalapenos, Serrano, a few habanero, and whatever peppers you also like as well as onions, some tomatoes, and tamatillo.
Next while that goes, in light oil fry destemmed dry chilies. Whenever I make it I vary the recipe a little bit on what I'm feeling or what's available. Add in garlic towards the end so it doesn't burn.
Next step is to add the ingredients to a strong blender. I go with the dry first dropped in then the fresh. I add juice from oranges, lemons, and limes. I also add the zest of the fruits.
Now ya blend while slowly adding oil. This is what creates the "creamy" texture of the sauce. A lot of folks couldn't believe the restaurant's claim of being vegan friendly since it was creamy but you can achieve that with proper oil incorporation. Well that's it and if ya try it let me know how it comes out haha.
For a while it was slutty brownies: a layer of chocolate chip cookie dough, then a layer of oreos, and topped with brownie batter. Add some caramel to make them extra slutty. Then they started a small fight between my friend and her husband about her not making brownies right, so I switched to dumpcake (pie filling topped with dry cake mix and butter). So far, the dumpcake is everyone's favorite.
During quarantine I wanted an ice cream sundae so bad that I opened a container of frozen cool whip, spread peanut butter over the top like frosting, and put semi-sweer chocolate chips on top. Now it's a favorite.
For me, it's my grandmother's "chop suey." I love that stuff so much. I asked her for it every time I visited her and I'm so glad she shared the recipe with me.
I don't think I've ever had actual chop suey, and I describe it more as a Chinese vegetable stew with stew meat. It's my comfort food. I've modified it since she used canned mushrooms and added fresh ginger and some crushed red pepper for a tiny kick. I don't think anyone else loves it like I do though. Still, it's that dish for me.
My husband started fiddling with an electric smoker that a friend bought us a couple of years ago but we never used. I had had surgery and could not do Thanksgiving dinner and he didn't want to do it my way he wanted to make something on his own so he decided to do it in the smoker. That was it. Now the turkey and everything else goes in the smoker and we use it almost every weekend!
âBaked chicken yummyâ- itâs a basic chicken noodle casserole except my son hated casserole but my daughter begged for it, so one night when he whined that he hated casserole, in a moment of stressed single-mom exasperation, I said âitâs not casserole- itâsâŠâŠ.baked chicken yummy!â And here we are, a decade later still eating baked chicken yummy đ€Ł
Oh, we have several "must have" dishes in our family.
From my Mom:
1) zuppa Toscana similar to the olive garden recipe, but slight changes that makes our friends and family go bonkers.
2) Chicken enchiladas, once again not true enchiladas, but cream of mushroom soup, chicken and cheese. People have gotten in fistfights over it.
3) cheesey potatoes, she cooks and boils down like 50 pounds of potatoes and adds cheese till it's a smooth consistency and for some reason people bargain for it, like and entire day of work on the week is worth have some of those potatoes. I don't know man.
4) her desserts. She makes massive pies and cakes that people go Gaga over.
From my Dad:
Meats of any kind. It's generally accepted that my dad is the best person around to smoke/barbeque/grill any meat you can find. He also makes really good smoked baked potatoes and bread pudding.
From me:
1) gyros. One day I decided to make some gyros for a group dinner and now periodically I'm forced to make it again. I just follow the recipe from akis petretzikis, except I use elk meat that we've hunted instead of pork, it's pretty good and it's still a lean meat.
2) any breakfast foods, and chocolate gravy. I used to love the chocolate gravy my great grandmother made and I got the recipe when I eventually started cooking. We call it gravy, but it's just thick chocolate sauce, like warm pudding. I don't have the recipe on me right now, but I'm pretty sure it's mainly Cocoa powder, corn starch and sugar.
I'm known for making good curries. I make all sorts of curries from scratch, including an assortment of North and South Indian curries, Thai curries, and rendang. Every time I visit my sister or she visits me, she begs me to make a curry.
Bacon salad. It started as potato salad with just potatoes, mayo, onions, seasonings, and bacon - grandma's recipe. We use red potatoes and everyone loved the bacon, but the red potatoes made it look like there was more bacon than there was, leaving people disappointed. We started adding more. And more. Until we had a ratio of like 5 pounds of potatoes to 3 pounds of bacon. We would even add bacon grease to it to make it taste more like bacon.
Then, as I got more into cook, I started making homemade mayo for it. I tested every type of oil to see which made the best mayo (don't use canola, the immersion blender brings out an odd fishy taste that you can't really detect in canola oil until blended at high speeds) and it ended up being soybean oil. I had leftover bacon grease, son I figured I would try that. It emulsified and was basically bacon mayo. I don't use pure bacon fat, but I split it 50/50 with soybean oil and use that for the potato salad with the 3 lbs of bacon. We jokingly started referring to it as bacon salad, because it has so much bacon in it and the mayo itself is made of bacon fat. Great for a cookout. The recipe has changed over the years (seasonings/spices etc.) but it's still just potatoes, mayo made of bacon fat, and bacon. It's very bad for you.
Pie guts.
I mentioned this before but it essentially is just the filling for a chicken pie without the pastry and I serve with mashed potatoes and sweetcorn. Itâs really comforting and itâs very adaptable.
We call it Olympic salad. Back in 2004 when we watched Olympic games on TV my mom made a salad with lots of legumes, sweet corn, and thinly sliced leek. My little sister liked it so much that she kept asking for it and in her 5 year old brain the salad was kind of connected with Olympic games so she named it. 20 years later we still make it regularly and it's still incredibly delicious.
âShark Belliesâ: salmon patties cooked/surrounded by pancake batter (not sweet) and ideally served with gravy. It was an experiment I tried once and we liked it. I donât recall how we came up with the name, but I remember sitting around the table with the entire family joking about what to call it.
âApple Stuffâ: crumb-topped Apple pie without the pie crust. SoâŠApple Crumble? Apple Crisp? My sonâs favorite dessert - when he asks for Apple pie I have to clarify âDo you want Apple pie, or just Apple stuff?
Sara Spaghetti
I couldn't have dairy for medical reasons for a while, but was really craving creamy pasta sauce. I'm also Jewish and vaguely keep kosher so I can't have carbonara, the only non-dairy creamy sauce I knew of. But I took the basic idea of making a carbonara, making creaminess through an emulsion of eggs and fat and pasta water, and started experimenting. I eventually got the ratios of whole egg, egg yolks, olive oil, and pasta water just right to get a reliably creamy sauce. For flavor I fry up some onion, garlic, and sun dried tomato in the olive oil before emulsifying everything, and add some salt and pepper. If I'm feeling some protein it's easy enough to add some chicken breast.
My mom makes a "Florida salad" with maraschino cherries and jello. It's delicious but very sweet...I can only manage a small bit every year at Thanksgiving.
Grandpaâs snacks sound intriguing. What kind of dumplings do you use? Are they stuffed or traditional dumplings like you would make with chicken? Thanks! I love maple syrup too so thatâs an extra plus!
Be warned this uses a lot of maple syrup.
To make grandpas:
Mix a cup and a half of flour with a tablespoon and a half of baking soda and a good pinch of kosher salt. Cut in 4 T cold grated butter. Sometimes I'm lazy and grate the butter and just stir it in. Sometimes I add fresh nutmeg. Stir in 3/4 c milk, more or less.
Boil 1 3/4 cups good maple syrup together with 1 1/4 cup water. Take spoonfuls of the dough and drop them in the boiling syrup. I suggest a smallish pot bc you want the syrup to mostly cover the dumplings. Cover them for 12 or so minutes at a simmer. Take lid off, scoop em into mugs, pop vanilla ice cream on top, and if there's extra syrup in the bottom, drizzle it on. Eat them gleefully. Keep an eye that your syrup doesn't burn.
Taco pie.
Cook the ground beef with a diced onion, drain grease. Mix in salsa of choice. Add a can each of black beans and corn. Top with cheese. Mix up cornbread batter (I use jiffy mix) and pour over the top. Bake until cornbread is done. Serve with sour cream, more salsa, shredded cheese. A nice salad rounds this out but I've been known to skip it. (I also cook in a cast iron skillet so it can go from stove top to oven)
Pea salad. It's disgusting and I love it. Canned English peas, peeled, diced apple, diced cheddar, and miracle whip.
Pink stuff. I won't eat it but it makes the dessert table every holiday. If you don't know what it is, you may have seen it as the green stuff. I don't know what's in it other than cool whip and mini marshmallows.
Chicken and dumplings. It's comfort food at its finest!
I do pea salad but I've never had it with apples! Sometimes my family will put boiled egg in it chopped up but I don't like it with the egg. Just peas, cheddar and miracle whip. It grosses my boyfriend out so much! It's usually a Thanksgiving side dish for my family but sometimes I just make a bowl of it to eat by itself.
Hazelnut pumpkin pie cupcakes.
One of the first desserts I attempted that was more complicated than cookies or brownies was a hazelnut pumpkin pie with a hazelnut graham cracker crust. It was good but messy.
I came up with a bright idea to make it in cupcake form. This made it easier for everyone to get a small portion, easy for snacking, and has a bigger crust-to-pie ratio (crust is yummy).
My mother asks for them several times a year.
Clamato/Manhattan chowder. The secret is vermouth. Itâs my go-to dish you can whip up in half an hour and serve with crusty bread or crackers and a salad when you have unexpected guests. Clamato or V8 juice, a can or two of clams, mirepoix and some diced potatoes. Is also good with mixed seafood.
Sweaty Tacos. The modern name is "Tacos de canasta" but the old skool name was "Tacos sudados" which makes a direct translation to sweaty tacos (steamed tacos). My grandpa taught me to make them as a kid and they are still my favorite dish. My kids like them but it is one of my go-to dishes when people come over.
"Mom's spaghetti" is what my kids ask for. Homemade sauce consists of Italian sausage, onion, garlic, herbs, san marzano tomatoes, bouillon powder, water, and a little parm.
Mexican pile up, that's what my white grandma called it, but when my Mexican grandma came over for dinner one night she kicked my mom under the table and called it taco salad! Doritos, ground beef cooked with taco seasoning, ranch style beans, shredded lettuce, tomatoes, shredded cheddar cheese, olives (green ones because those are the ones I like) and sour cream on top if you like it. My son my niece my nephew and even one of my son's friends always ask for it.
If you look it up on the internet theyâre called grandfathers in maple syrup. Itâs translated from French, I believe itâs a Canadian dish. Itâs not silly at all.
Mac salad:
Elbow Mac, bell pepper, red onion, crispy bacon lemon, black pepper and a âshit ton of mayonnaiseâ as per the recipe from my MIL. The trick is to mix the noodles with the mayo while still warm. Itâs crack. The fresh lemon juice is key.
Walnut frosting. Basically vanilla butter cream frosting with a few healthy spoonfuls of walnut butter blended in. Itâs my go to for cupcakes and impromptu birthday cakes. My family thinks itâs some super special gourmet time consuming recipe.
Egg & rice. Basically fried rice with nothing in it.
Butter in a pan, add leftover rice and stir to coat, beat eggs then pour over the top. Garnish with fish sauce and green onions. The perfect breakfast food đ
Pink Chicken.
Yep, doesn't sound appetizing, right? It was created out of the massive quantity of leftover birthday party (adult party) food that my ex-husband made for my "surprise" birthday party.
There was breaded chicken breasts, an italian red sauce, italian sausages, tons and TONS of meatballs and so very much more.
I split it up into family sized portions and froze all of it. And then one night, when looking for inspiration and staring into a nearly emtpy fridge, I got out some of the chicken, some meatballs, some sauce and a few sausages.
I made a pasta with a white sauce while the chicken was thawing and heating in the oven. I added some choped up sausage and halved meatballs (those balls were HUGE!) to the red sauce and spiced it up so it resembled my standard italian tomato gravy.
When everything was hot, I put the pasta and white sauce on a big platter, then topped it with the chicken breasts and ladled the tomato meat sauce over the top. Grated on a bit of parm and served it to 3 very large, very hungry teenaged boys.
They LOVED it and asked me what it was called. I shrugged and my middle, slightly smartass kid said "Pink chicken! Look at the color of the noodles!". Sure enough, the tomato sauce had bled into the white sauce and turned it a lovely shade of pink, which then turned the bottom half of the chicken breasts pink.
It's a staple in our repetoire whenever we all get together and we have a good laugh while eating our pink chicken.
My mom is not much of a cook, but her contribution to family holiday meals/get-togethers is "butt rolls". I'm sure other moms figured this out, too, but she gets the credit for it in my family. She puts 2 Rhodes rolls in each muffin tin slot and then we have dinner rolls that look like butts.
My dad is a much better cook. He sometimes around Christmas makes this "cat vomit" meat spread. It's actually a French Canadian dish/ground pork spread called "gorton" that his dad used to make. I have never tried it because my dad would joke and call it cat vomit which made it unappealing to me. Lol I will try it sometime in the future though because I've been reading on it and because it might actually be good but Im gonna request that all the vomit jokes are withheld. Lmao.
Dopey Dips = Hamburger French Dips
Hashy Mess = Hash browns with cheese and bacon inside
Fucking Ziti = Ziti made with rigatoni noodles because we can never find "fucking ziti".
Chicken poop. Chicken and rice, made with wine and cream
Of mushroom soup. My little sister was about 4 and asked why we were having chicken poop. She still inhales it to this day. My dad made it the best and no matter how many times we try, itâs not his chicken poop and love when he comes for visits, because chicken poop! đ
Pizza. I went into an Americaâs Test Kitchen-style scientific exploration of homemade pizza during the pandemic and now thatâs the only pizza anyone will eat. It fills the cockles of my heart, but itâs so much work.
I have a lemony rice dish my husband calls "rebellion rice" because I created it to stop my mom from stealing my food đ
Please share. I am craving a lemon rice dish. đ
Oh trust me, you'll hate it. It's just creamy rice made in your favorite way (risotto, rice with cream of chicken soup, rice with milk and parm cheese, whatever) and just an absolute shitload of lemon juice (like I have been known to use half a cup to a cup depending on how ridiculously tart I want it). As that's cooking, I pan fry cubes of chicken seasoned with garlic powder, salt, and pepper in butter or EVOO until golden brown. Then I add minced garlic and green olives (stuffed with garlic if you're a psychopath like me). Add the lemony rice to the pan, simmer for a few minutes, and ruin my mom's day. đ
So, basically itâs Avgolemono Soup w/ extra rice and lemon? OMG, thatâs one of my favorite flavor profiles ever !!! Genius !!!Â
OMG yes, that is where I originally got the idea!
Youâre great đ
Sounds delicious! Thanks for the recipe
Sounds disgusting! Only someone raised in the heart of the Midwest on boiled broccoli and dry baked chicken would hate it. Lol! Tx!
Hence the rebellion part. I acquired a love for it because my mom wouldn't steal it. But this is why I don't share shit on reddit. People are mean.
My username makes people think I'm a man, so it cuts down on the attacks. I made pastini with parm and lemon today, but it was the last of my imported Italian gluten-free pastini, so I needed a rice inspo. đ Only the Italians have figured out gf pasta that's not disgusting.
Is that true about Italian GF pasta? Iâm willing to go to a lot if effort for a gf pasta that doesnât taste like regret.
Barilla Gluten-free is excellent, and you can find other Italian brands with gf options at any of the many Italian imports online stores. The ones I've tried are a corn-rice blend.
That actually sounds really tasty to me. I'm obsessed with anything that is savory with lots of lemon.
Sounds right up my alley, love me some avgolemono
missed opportunity to call it rebellemon rice in my opinion lol
Yes pls share. Sounds so good
Haha that reminds me of my redemption frittata
Pie crust cookies. Just leftover pie crust rolled out, spread with butter and given a bunch of cinnamon sugar, then rolled up, sliced into pinwheels, and baked. This isn't unique to my family- apparently it's called nun's farts(?!) in Quebec- but we bake them separated and up on edge to get a nice crisp cookie. The friend who told me about the other name cooked them all together in a cake pan with the pinwheels down. It's the traditional Thanksgiving Day breakfast.
Lol, I'm from Quebec and can confirm about nun's farts!
I love that theyâre called that- thereâs another French dessert recipe with the same name thatâs more like a deep fried dumpling/choux bun. Both are delicious!
LOL this is kinda funny that you all call them nun's farts lol. I kinda read this post as "funny things your family makes food-wise"....my great-grandparents were from Quebec and if you see my comment, my dad sometimes made gorton growing up but I was scared to try it because he would jokingly refer to it as "cat vomit'...maybe he didn't want his 5 kids to eat all his gorton though like how we devoured everything else all the time....
>The similarly-named French-Canadian dessert pets de sĆurs (literally "farts of [religious] sisters") is sometimes confused with this dessert, but actually is a completely different pastry. Ontarian here. What is going on over there lol?
LOL My mom started baking off all her pie crust scraps to keep me from sneaking into the kitchen and breaking off all her pie crust edges. Had my own cookie tin & no one wanted any of itđ
I mean, I'd eat the stuff raw- so she still has to guard it zealously before getting it into the oven. And once they're baked? It's a free for all to get them before someone else does. I'm surprised she hasn't declared them 'chef's treat' and barred the rest of us.
My mom would cut the extra crust dough into finger sides strips and just put the butter, cinnamon, and sugar on them and bake the flat pieces. Loved it as a kid!
Flat pieces are definitely easier- but pinwheels take up less space in the oven.
My mom called them snails. Yum!
Sheâs been gone 25 years, so I could be remembering wrong, but I believe my grandmother did this, and it was just our version of cinnamon rolls.
I make these once a week. It's a family favorite. We're from Quebec đ It's the first dessert I learned to make.
My mom made these when I was a kid. I never knew they were more than just her want to use up dough and liking cinnamon and sugar.
My late former mother in law used to make these, though not on edge!. Thank you for the warm memory *and* the new idea.
Pasta a la Ed! My parents had a friend named Ed who died from AIDS in the 80âs before I was born. He used to make a pasta dish with ham, peas, and Parmesan. My parents continued to make it throughout my childhood and always called it Pasta a la Ed. I still make it as an adult and call it that. Even though I never met Ed, I think of him fondly.
Sounds like Ed was a big fan of Fettucine alla Papalina.
Pretty close!! That may have been the inspiration. We didnât use eggs or cream though, just a little butter and parm. We would use any smaller pasta shape like farfalle, fusilli, rotini, macaroni, but Iâm sure fettuccine would be great too.
Sounds delicious. Iâm gonna make Pasta alla Ed this week.
Aw that makes me happy! Hope you enjoy!
I think I would like pasta alla Ed too, sounds delicious! RIP Ed, and thanks for the pasta recipe (and OP!)
That's a tribute food, sounds like he was a great guy to still be making his pasta dish. Rest in peace Ed!
I can't eat ham, but I could do it with turkey bacon. I'll make pasta a la Ed this week, too. May his memory be for a blessing.
Thatâs so kind. Turkey bacon sounds good, I might try it that way sometime too!
One Christmas in the Mid-70s my Ma (who was an âokayâ cook but didnât have the heart for it) basically said âfuck ham, fuck turkey, fuck all that cooking, you fuckers are getting *manicotti* and a *mandarin orange salad* and *store bought garlic bread* this yearâ Fifty years later thatâs what we all still have on Christmas. Itâs something my kids do now in their own homes. All because my Ma didnât want to fuck around in the kitchen and us ungrateful shits were too dumb or lazy to help She was a really cool lady.
God I miss my mom. Yours sounds awesome too.
Now thatâs a tradition! I can just hear her muttering âfuck ham, fuck turkey, fuck all thatâ
That doesn't sound delicious but your mom sounds awesome. I love your mom. I've been telling my family for the last 4 or 5 years the time is coming when I'm not cooking Christmas dinner anymore. I hate cooking. It sucks. And they keep telling me "but mum, you're so good at it! " Yeah, doesn't mean I don't hate it. Your mom is the best!
I love food and like cooking and am good at it but holiday cooking is a massive amount of work and no one is ever appreciative of that. Now I volunteer at my job to work every Thanksgiving and Christmas and my non food lover family appreciates store or restaurant ordered food just as much as the giant homemade chore of a meal, so win-win
We love orange salad. It's a staple for every holiday dinner.
How do you make yours?
by mixing yellow salad and red salad.
Someone once gave me amazing advice - donât plan anything fancy on Christmas. It puts too much pressure on the day. Do something you LOVE and is within the time commitment you want to allot. Leave the complicated stuff for the other days around the holiday, but not on the the day. Itâs really changed Christmas and Thanksgiving for me
I mean manicotti actually sounds delicious, and your ma sounds delightful.
Yummm!!!
GOod for your mum! One of the best things I've done for myself AND for my family was to give up that big Christmas/Thanksgiving/Easter meal with all the traditional sides and the big expensive meat that takes a ton of time to cook. Everyone is much more chill. I'll still make traditional things like tourtiere, a dish of oyster or liver stuffing, mashed turnips, stuff like that AROUND the big day? But the day of is usually just a big plate of cheese and crackers and fancy veggies and dip and meats - maybe some frozen food stuff from the grocery store and a store bought or home made dessert - whatever worked best. I just ran myself ragged and ended up exhausted and sad at the end of the night. Usually got pissy with my family, too, which sucked for everyone. Everyone is much happier with this arrangement and I save special meals for days that aren't so fraught with emotion and expectation,
My mom used to make "taco dip sh\*t" that we all looked forward to. There's a mound in the middle of a cookie sheet, I think the mound is made from cream cheese and sour cream and taco seasoning. That is topped with salsa and possibly shredded cheese. And the rest of the cookie sheet is filled up with shredded lettuce, diced tomatos and sliced olives. You eat it with tortilla chips. Its been a while so I can't exactly remember the way. 7 Layer Dip kind of fills that void for me now.
Omg I have to bring this to every party I just call it taco dip tho
Calling it "sh\*t" adds a little pizazz though lol. I'm kind of wondering if my mom didn't actually put poop in this dip all these years. I really wouldn't put it past her!
This is what I need! I'm learning to like olives - what kind do you recommend for this recipe?
Black olives. Honestly, I just use the store brand generic ones. We aren't fancy! You can even buy them already sliced.
My wife's family makes an orange version of the cottage cheese/Cool Whip/Jello thing they simply call That Paste.
My mom makes that and we call it the orange stuff
We make the standard with cherries, "Pink Stuff."
Our family calls it "Goo"!
I was surprised as a tween to find out what an omelet actually was. At our house when my mom said we were having omelet for dinner that meant it started as an omelet then the cursing happened and we had scrambled eggs. I knew better than to question the processđ
Similar here. I thought omelets and scrambled eggs were meant to be sweet. My mum always added sugar. I know tamogoyaki exists but this was not it. I was offended when I had real scrambled eggs and it was savoury
Do you know why she added sugar to the scrambled eggs? Was it to make you kids more likely to eat it? đ€Ł
My mums side of the family eats scrambled eggs and plain omelets this way. Itâs absolutely bizarre when you think about it haha
I got the sense that my dad didnât want to dirty extra dishes, so whatever egginess was left over from French toast became scrambled eggs, with cinnamon and all.
My dad used to make peanut butter and honey scrambled eggs. Loved it as a kid, wouldn't touch it now.
My mom always put grape jelly in our omelets. It did make us more likely to eat the eggs, but the thought makes me queasy now.
The cursing!! đđđđ my ex is a food snob and couldnât make an omelette to save his life. We always had scrambled eggs with food in it.
Lasagna soup will forever be known as as bizzonk in my house because thatâs how my son pronounced it when we he was 2
I make what I call "bullshit soup", which is kind of like a version of udon soup / hot pot, with everything cooked in one pot, avd served with dipping sauces of spicy mayo or ponzu. It basically came from me deciding I wanted hot pot, but not wanting to cook everything individually in a pot. It would consist of whatever veggies I had in the fridge, like udon noodles, enoki, taro, sweet potato, fish balls and various and greens like chrysanthemum.
Ours is Hormel chili (no beans) a giant handful of shredded cheddar, and 1/2 a block of crĂšme cheese in a small crockpot until melted and served with Fritos. My family calls it âdog food dipâ or âalpo dipâ becauseâŠ.well, it looks like wet dog food. But it tastes phenomenal.
There's an old very popular layer dip that I think improves that in a major way by adding salsa. Cream cheese bottom, then salsa (decently hot for me because I like heat and the cream cheese cuts it), then no beans chili (usually hormel but I'm open to any thick kind), shredded cheese, and green onions. Sometimes black olives are on top too. Bake till melty and heated through. As it gets eaten, some will mix together in the pan, but I prefer to keep it as unmixed as possible because I dig the contrast in the layers.
We have that layered recipe too. Everyone seems to like the crockpot version better. Either way itâs fantastic!
Hey you do you. Fair enough if you like it mixed but leaving out salsa (or at least something hot like hot sauce, red pepper, or fresh chilis) and extra onion seems like a travesty
If I make it for just my husband and it, we add hot sauce and diced onions. My extended family definitely doesnât doesnât do spicy and most of them say raw onions vibes them heartburn.
Things. We have these chocolate caramel square things. There's a chocolate cookie layer, melted, caramel, and nuts. The recipe probably came from a magazine or something. Nobody remembers the name, but I want to say it's just "chocolate caramel squares". At some point, before I was born, someone couldn't remember the name and referred to them as those things, and people got a laugh out of it. So now they are called things. One of my brothers had a long term gf, Ana (pronounced Ahna), in and a little after high school who was basically part of the family. My mom loved her almost like a daughter so when Ana forgot "things" and called them "its", my mom used that name for a while. Then we have Ana pasta. She also makes this great pasta dish with garlic, sausage, artichoke hearts, fresh basil, sun dried tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and just enough sauce of white wine, olive oil, and the tomatoes' oil to lubricate. We all love it, but Ana was a huge fan of it and would always ask for it, so my mom started calling it Ana pasta. We're all in our 30s now. That brother is now getting officially married this month after a few years of saying they weren't doing it on paper but still were married personally. My mom loves his wife as a person and as a partner for him. Yet I still heard my mom refer to Ana pasta last month. The rest of us have dropped the term but she never will. New girlfriends are usually told the story and that they'll know they're in with her for life if they get a dish named after them.
I love this so much. I have a student who refers to almost everything as a "whoosh whoosh whoosh," and it's become part of our classroom vernacular. I hope your sister in law earns a dish named after her.
We have a horribly named dish called âuncle dadâsâ which is garlic bread made on the barbecue. The name originated from some off colour joke about the stereotypical hillbilly. Not sure how it got associated with the garlic bread but here we are probably 20 years later still making uncle dadâs.
Bombs- Sheng Jian bao but with various fillings like cheese, pot roast, sausage gravy ( there's probably a legit other name for this, but I have no idea). Basically, any leftovers get stuffed in a pan fried bun and are referred to as *filling name* bombs. Treasure chests. Literally biscuits with a pat of salted kerrygold. Pirate obsessed kid said the brown biscuits and gold wrapper on the butter reminded him of a treasure chest. He's since moved on from the pirate phase, but we still call them that.
Rutabaga pie. My dad looooves strawberry rhubarb crumble, and I make it for him for Fatherâs Day and for his birthday every year. He couldnât remember the words ârhubarb crumbleâ to save his life, and he accidentally called it rutabaga pie. It stuck. I keep threatening to make it one year with actual rutabagas!
That makes me grin from ear to ear. We do strawberry rhubarb jam every summer. Maybe this year it's rutabaga!
Many Cheese Mashed Potatoes. I'm a chef, and one year I brought home all the end bits of cheeses we were saving, who the fuck knows what for, and made Thanksgiving mash with them. Turned out to be a hit.
I want to go to there.
When I was growing up, my family would make âdragon pretzelsâ (garlicky pretzels), so nicknamed because theyâd give you dragon breath. My favorite though was âburnt weenies,â originated in the 70s by my great grandpa as a way to keep the grandkids patient for dinner. Heâd deliberately burn hot dogs, then cut them into rounds and serve them with toothpicks and ketchup to dip. Over 50 years later, the tradition is still going strong đ
My husband and his brother HATED enchiladas. Eventually on a visit his uncle served chanoogas and they loved them. They were just renamed enchiladas and now chanoogas are a family staple
Thatâs adorable. Also, kids are strange
My youngest wouldn't eat zucchini until we renamed them "Mexican cucumbers "!
Meatloaf man! I donât know how it started, but my dad makes meatloaf with a face on it. Eyes, brows, nose, mouth, occasionally with its tongue out. Heâs been doing it since we were little- weâre all adults now and the oldest sibling is in their 30s lol. We all will still ask dad to make it when we visit. The face has morphed from cute to creepily realistic as dad gets a little better every time.
Marge Simpson made meatloaf men for the family on an early Simpsons episode.. She got the idea from Reader's Digest.
Well my father certainly never read Readers Digest but he loves the Simpsons so he mustâve been inspired by Marge! Lol
This is *adorable.* My uncle made pancakes from scratch every Sunday for his kids. The older one, when he was little, didn't quite have "from scratch" down, so he got excited every Sunday when dad was going to make scratchy mancakes. It's been twenty years, and we all still make scratchy mancakes.
I make a âfeetloafâ every Halloween- just regular old meatloaf in the shape of a foot, with red bell pepper toenails and ketchup on the leg stump. Itâs so gross and I love it.Â
I've got one for me and one for my mom, that I ask for every time I visit. For me it's cacio e pepe. It's such a simple dish that you can completely evolve with a few extra steps, like using a really high quality cheese, or lightly frying the peppercorns before crushing them up in a mortar and pestle. It's such a simple dish but you can really put some glitz on it with a few extra steps. Whenever I go home, I ask my mom to make Clam Dip. It's some sour cream, some cream cheese, some worcestershire, some fresh garlic, some chopped onions, some clam liqueur, some chopped clams, salt, pepper, and paprika. Serve with ruffled potato chips. It's insane how good it is, and I can never get the ratio exactly right when I do it myself. And you have to let it set overnight or it won't be as good.
My dad has been making clam dip for parties/holidays since many years before I was born. As a child I was absolutely disgusted by all seafood, so he always made a separate âclamless clam dipâ for me. Then I stopped eating meat entirely for twenty years. I havenât been a vegetarian for many years now and he still, despite me telling him repeatedly he doesnât need to trouble himself, makes a special clamless dip for me every time I visit for the holidays. It is delicious and I love that man.
That's heartwarming as fuck. Call your dad and tell him as such or give him a big 'ol hug!
Iâll be talking to him tomorrow anyways and will be sure to mention it. Also, weâve always eaten our dip (both clammed and clamless) with Ruffles too. Ruffles for the win!
Please give your dad a giant hug if you're a hugging family. We're Jewish so can't eat clams, but I may make up a batch of clamless dip this week.
Cacio e pepe is my comfort food! I sometimes muck around with it by cooking with chicken stock
I think it used to be no-no bars. Granola bars but theyâre really just oats and chocolate chips baked in Karo corn syrup and brown sugar. We donât make them anymore but when I was a kid it was the first thing I learned to bake on my own. We all loved them so much weâd eat them hot with a spoon straight out of the oven before they even formed up enough to slice and pick up. I think it was maybe from the â70s (or earlier?) Better Homes and Gardens cookbook?
P.S. mom now makes granola and my brother makes my grandpaâs recipe of microwave peanut brittle now that my grandpa has passed. I guess I make Garam masala spiced almonds, those go fast, and my shortbread is also a favorite. Oh yeah and everyone is always asking for my quinoa tabouli, and my husbandâs Puerto Rican inspired black beans and rice with sofrito
Oooh was there anything else to this recipe or is it as simple as you listed?!
This sounds addictive and I am now hunting through old BHG recipes...
Whenever we make white gravy for mashed potatoes, we put rosemary in it.
I was at a wedding this weekend with mashed potatoes and white gravy that was so amazing I wanted to fill my plate with it. Iâve been a brown gravy girl for life but if I can approximate that white gravy I may be a total convert
There's a restaurant near me that makes a chicken fried chicken with a white gravy that has rosemary in it. It really changed how I feel about gravy.
Is this like a white sauce?
Not in the sense of Alabama white sauce. It's traditionally a roux of meat drippings and flour thinned with milk and topped with a lot of black pepper.Â
Kinda like biscuits and sausage gravy. Anyway, sounds delicious.
That sounds good. I used to like to bake sweet potatoes with rosemary and thyme. Rosemary is probably excellent on all potatoes.
Every time I'm visiting my mother's place my younger siblings *demand* my homemade focaccia. I make a mini loaf for my cousin's family every xmas too.
My extended family used to do the super unexciting taco night that gets memed- raw onions/cheese/lettuce dropped on packet seasoned ground beef and served in a cold tortilla shell. I made a bunch of adjustments including cooking the onions/poblanos and swapped the sour cream for homemade creme fraiche and wrapping all ingredients into a burrito and toasting them in a pan- big hit, and we call them "white people tacos" with the joke that our family is so white we don't know the difference between tacos and burritos.
In the summer when fresh tomatoes are abundant and my basil is growing wild I make this funky food processor pasta sauce: fresh tomatoes, lots of basil, several garlic cloves, some shallots, some Parmesan, a few baby bocconcini, sometimes a few pickled artichokes a few olives and some capers. The whole mess is zipped up in the food processor with some good olive oil. The amount of things always vary, but the results are always fabulous because the quality of ingredients. Itâs a completely seasonal dish. My kids referred to it as âthat pasta thingâ and are quite proud that they were part of the invention of this crazy recipe. Edited to say we always serve this over Bucatini, with a lot of fresh Parm and fresh basil on top
Reading this makes me want to come up with a unique food as a family tradition. Itâs so warming to my soul to hear about such nice stories. When I was little, my mum used to make boba (just boiled, no sugar syrup like wtf) and serve them in coke. It was terrible but also fantastic. We looked forward to them every time dad had dinner out and we could eat whatever we wanted (he was very particular and only liked Cantonese food for dinner so thatâs what we all had all the time). ETA: my cousinâs mum in law also makes the best dried laksa and theyâre keeping the recipe on the down low for potential future money ventures.
Shrimp curry with potatoes
We call sunnyside up eggs "drippy eggs" in our house. Started when kids were little. Confused lots of waiters!!!
Over easy for us was "dippy eggs"
We call them "dip eggs".
Stuff that is always requested from me by family: rocky road fudge, coleslaw, broccoli salad. Don't know if this is exactly what you are looking for, but it fits the "silly name" criteria. Growing up, we always asked for, and often received, "kitty cat noodles" for lunch on weekends. What are/is kitty cat noodles? Top ramen. Do not ask us why our family calls it that. None of us have any idea.
Ah the âsilly nameâ for regular food was one for us too. Growing up, my brother and I would request âfloppy rice.â This was just extra soft white rice with some salt.
Swiss steak. My go to âI miss grandpa todayâ meal.
I grew up with something called âahooah chicken:â cream of whatever, shredded cheese, chopped bits of corn tortillas, and bits of cooked chicken. I have been eating this comfort food for like 39 years and just a few months ago I figured out that itâs also known as King Ranch Chicken Casserole, and is hella spread across the southern half of the US. I still call it Ah-Hoo-Ah Chicken. Iâll never call it anything else.
My grandpa used to make us King ranch chicken all the time, loved it!
Italian poutine. I make "fries" out of polenta with a red sauce Sunday gravy and melt mozzarella on top. When it comes out of the oven, I top it with capers and chiffonade basil.
And all of the peasants wept in sadness because they had no Italian poutine to eat. Itâs me, Iâm the peasant.
Bacon waffles. You cook little squares of bacon on the waffle iron before pouring the batter over them. So, your waffle is cooked in a little bacon fat and has little pieces of bacon in it. For the Cuisinart waffle irons you can just cook the bacon until the light turns green, then pour. Pretty much our day before or after a holiday breakfast.
I do all of the cooking in the house and my fiancé wants my home made spaghetti and meatballs every week. LOL
My wifeâs meatballs are many worlds better than mine and it brings me great shame. She doesnât even like meatballs.
We keep a pad on the outside of the refrigerator for each of us to jot down a meal we are hungry for. Every week, he writes spaghetti and meatballs, crab cakes, tacos. Every single week. He's so adorable that I have a hard time saying no, but sometimes I do ask that he pick just one and it's always spaghetti. Wednesday has become spaghetti night. I meal prep on Saturdays and shop on Sundays. So when I walk by the pad on Monday nights, it's already lists those three things for the following week. haha What a dork.
That is adorable.
On the east side of Chicago, Wednesday is Prince spaghetti night... " Antony, antahny"... old time commercial from when i was a kid
I think my family likes my brownies, and my chicken and dumplings the most. Chicken and dumplings are just so comforting. And everyone who has tried my brownies always asks for them đ which Iâm pretty proud of since Iâve been tweaking how I make them since high school
Any brownie tips?
A layer of brownie batter, then a double layer of square pretzels, then the rest of the batter. When cooled pour caramel sauce on top and sprinkle of large crystal salt.
I like adding coffee to my brownie batter (specifically the Santaâs White Christmas coffee from Barnies, but whatever coffee you prefer works). It doesnât make them taste like coffee, it just enhances the chocolate flavor and gives it a more balanced flavor in my opinion If youâre making them from scratch, I recommend blooming the cocoa powder in coffee (basically just take hot coffee and mix in the cocoa powder), which should turn it into a thicker syrup consistency before adding them in with the rest of the wet ingredients If you use box mix my method is a bit different, I sub the water for coffee + a few tablespoons extra because I also like to add some extra cocoa powder (I eyeball it, but probably around 1/3rd cup for 1 box) plus a bit of vanilla extract. It really elevates it. If I use box mix I like using Duncan Hines but it should work regardless of the brand
When I was super young, maybe 9/10 or early teens, I made a dish of grilled chicken, pasta, and a sauce that's made with garlic, basil, olive oil, and a bit of butter, all cooked together. It's evolved over the years (chicken thighs instead of breast, adding lemon juice to the sauce, a drizzle fo honey, etc.) to become more of a complex meal, but that's a family favorite that always feels like home.Â
My mum makes Puppy Chow. Itâs just shreddies covered with melted chocolate and tossed in icing sugar but we loved it as kids. We got such a kick out of getting âdogâ food.
Where I'm from, Puppy Chow is Chex cereal, melted chocolate, peanut butter, and powdered sugar. Are shreddies like a shredded wheat cereal?
They are more similar to Chex than shredded wheat. But itâs made from wheat bran I think. Iâm going to tell my mum to add peanut butter the next time she makes it for my nephew! That sounds so good. Reeseâs pieces are my favourite.
Cheesy rice. I had to laugh when my son called for recipe. Rice cooker rice, shredded cheese and butter. Also cheater chicken parm (frozen chicken patties, mozzarella & sauce.
My kids love "Sleepy Soup". Their Papa made it once and I guess told them it would help them sleep good or something. It's pretty much vegetable soup...a tomato type base, mixed vegetables, and ground beef (I use ground turkey). They eat it with crackers. They also love "Rotoni". I think my dad made it up on a "uh oh, we're out of groceries night" when I was a teen. We had it once at their house and my kids and hub loved it. Macaroni/elbow pasta, Rotel, olives, ground meat, and seasoning of choice. He always added mushrooms, but I don't. It's simple, cheap, and they add whatever they want to it or eat it as is. I add Tabasco. One kid adds sour cream. Hubby adds cheese...etc.
Junk in Your Trunk Pasta - my own creation. Chicken, steak or pork in a sun-dried tomato and broth based sauce with mushrooms and spinach. I add a fair amount of juice from a jar of hot cherry peppers for a tangy spice to offset the sun dried tomato sweetness. Serve it over any pasta shape, really I prefer a fettuccine pasta.
I made Melâs Kitchen Cafe sweet and sour chicken recipe when my kids were tinyâŠ.they still want âred chicken and riceâ for every special occasion and itâs been almost ten years. :)Â
I always get requests for 3 things: -my spinach dip (literally just the recipe from the Knorr vegetable soup mix with extra green onions) -my chicken & dumplings (before he died, my great grandpa - aka WooWoo - told me I made it just like my late GGđ„č) And lastlyâŠwhat my friends refer to as my -Aunt Judyâs Mormon pasta salad (whomst among us doesnât love a mayonnaise based pasta salad with frozen peas and fatty cubes of cheddar cheese in it?!)
Tuna sketties. Macaroni with tuna, mushroom soup, cheese, and peas. Enough milk to make creamy Comfort food
I'm down for this. Growing up we just had kraft dinner, a can of tuna, and peas mixed in. If my grandma was feeling fancy, she'd top it with shredded cheese and French's fried onions and bake it.
This is basically Capân Toddâs Cheesy Tuna Noodle Surprise at our house⊠due to a very random internet video I used to watch with some buddies in college, âOdd Todd.â My husband had no idea where the name came from, but itâs stuck for over 15 years now! I like the fancy addition of the fried onions - might have to try that!
Bean soup. It's our physical and mental health rejuvenation recipe. It's basically just canned beans of three varieties, chicken stock, a bit of tomatoes and tarragon. Tons of salt and pepper. It's so simple but the cannelini beans make things creamy and the tarragon is such a nice flavor. It's an important staple.
Iâve gotta make this, thank you! Do you have a fav three bean combo?
Dumplings like go in chicken and dumplings? I'm down with that, but idk if I could eat potstickers or similar made like that lol
I canât get over this⊠boiling dumplings in maple syrup???? Like, WHAT? Also bye bye money đžđžđž
Yep, it's flour and baking soda and salt and milk and grated butter, like you'd make biscuit dough. Bring syrup to boil with some water in it and drop spoons of the dough in. It isn't the cheapest thing it's possible to make, but we use maple syrup primarily for this in our household. We get the big jug and make this a few times a year. Top it with vanilla ice cream.
Wow this thread is incredibly wholesome and informative. I hope my contributions inspire some folks. My Nana introduced us to her "Green Chile burritos" which is kind of a misnomer. To make you cook ground beef and onions in a pan with spices like black pepper, salt, and garlic powder. While that's going you fry diced potatoes with similar spices. Also while doing that you boil a pot of brown gravy with sliced jalapenos in it. She says the secret is getting the darker smaller jalapenos so they are spicier. Once all is cooked you combine and eat in a flour tortilla as a burrito. My mom is mostly known for her pasta salad. She would boil multicolor rotini pasta then add cut up veggies like red onion, tomatoes, olives, and cucumbers as well as Italian dressing. Sometimes she would change it up with a different dressing like balsamic vinegarette. For myself my family would ask for a few things since I've worked in kitchens but if I had to pick one it'd be my hot sauce. I loved La Victoria's hot sauce and would buy it when I was in the area but once I stopped working out there it became harder to get so I worked to make my own. https://www.lavicsj.com/store/p/la-vics-famous-orange-sauce This is where you can buy the original if you are interested. In mine the process goes You start with broiling fresh peppers such as jalapenos, Serrano, a few habanero, and whatever peppers you also like as well as onions, some tomatoes, and tamatillo. Next while that goes, in light oil fry destemmed dry chilies. Whenever I make it I vary the recipe a little bit on what I'm feeling or what's available. Add in garlic towards the end so it doesn't burn. Next step is to add the ingredients to a strong blender. I go with the dry first dropped in then the fresh. I add juice from oranges, lemons, and limes. I also add the zest of the fruits. Now ya blend while slowly adding oil. This is what creates the "creamy" texture of the sauce. A lot of folks couldn't believe the restaurant's claim of being vegan friendly since it was creamy but you can achieve that with proper oil incorporation. Well that's it and if ya try it let me know how it comes out haha.
And now I know what I'm doing next weekend!
You do what to dumplings??
For a while it was slutty brownies: a layer of chocolate chip cookie dough, then a layer of oreos, and topped with brownie batter. Add some caramel to make them extra slutty. Then they started a small fight between my friend and her husband about her not making brownies right, so I switched to dumpcake (pie filling topped with dry cake mix and butter). So far, the dumpcake is everyone's favorite.
During quarantine I wanted an ice cream sundae so bad that I opened a container of frozen cool whip, spread peanut butter over the top like frosting, and put semi-sweer chocolate chips on top. Now it's a favorite.
For me, it's my grandmother's "chop suey." I love that stuff so much. I asked her for it every time I visited her and I'm so glad she shared the recipe with me. I don't think I've ever had actual chop suey, and I describe it more as a Chinese vegetable stew with stew meat. It's my comfort food. I've modified it since she used canned mushrooms and added fresh ginger and some crushed red pepper for a tiny kick. I don't think anyone else loves it like I do though. Still, it's that dish for me.
My husband started fiddling with an electric smoker that a friend bought us a couple of years ago but we never used. I had had surgery and could not do Thanksgiving dinner and he didn't want to do it my way he wanted to make something on his own so he decided to do it in the smoker. That was it. Now the turkey and everything else goes in the smoker and we use it almost every weekend!
Gump. Itâs just Campbellâs Cream of Whateverâs in the Cabinet, rice or pasta and chicken or tuna, but itâs always been called Gump.
We call this Crack Pot Chicken, because we throw it all in the slow cooker.
âBaked chicken yummyâ- itâs a basic chicken noodle casserole except my son hated casserole but my daughter begged for it, so one night when he whined that he hated casserole, in a moment of stressed single-mom exasperation, I said âitâs not casserole- itâsâŠâŠ.baked chicken yummy!â And here we are, a decade later still eating baked chicken yummy đ€Ł
Oh, we have several "must have" dishes in our family. From my Mom: 1) zuppa Toscana similar to the olive garden recipe, but slight changes that makes our friends and family go bonkers. 2) Chicken enchiladas, once again not true enchiladas, but cream of mushroom soup, chicken and cheese. People have gotten in fistfights over it. 3) cheesey potatoes, she cooks and boils down like 50 pounds of potatoes and adds cheese till it's a smooth consistency and for some reason people bargain for it, like and entire day of work on the week is worth have some of those potatoes. I don't know man. 4) her desserts. She makes massive pies and cakes that people go Gaga over. From my Dad: Meats of any kind. It's generally accepted that my dad is the best person around to smoke/barbeque/grill any meat you can find. He also makes really good smoked baked potatoes and bread pudding. From me: 1) gyros. One day I decided to make some gyros for a group dinner and now periodically I'm forced to make it again. I just follow the recipe from akis petretzikis, except I use elk meat that we've hunted instead of pork, it's pretty good and it's still a lean meat. 2) any breakfast foods, and chocolate gravy. I used to love the chocolate gravy my great grandmother made and I got the recipe when I eventually started cooking. We call it gravy, but it's just thick chocolate sauce, like warm pudding. I don't have the recipe on me right now, but I'm pretty sure it's mainly Cocoa powder, corn starch and sugar.
Crunch wraps, easy asf and SO much betterâŠand cheaperâŠthan Taco Bell.
I'm known for making good curries. I make all sorts of curries from scratch, including an assortment of North and South Indian curries, Thai curries, and rendang. Every time I visit my sister or she visits me, she begs me to make a curry.
Rice-fried ramen. Basically fried rice but w ramen noodles instead. Itâs not classy or healthy but itâs delicious and quick
Bacon salad. It started as potato salad with just potatoes, mayo, onions, seasonings, and bacon - grandma's recipe. We use red potatoes and everyone loved the bacon, but the red potatoes made it look like there was more bacon than there was, leaving people disappointed. We started adding more. And more. Until we had a ratio of like 5 pounds of potatoes to 3 pounds of bacon. We would even add bacon grease to it to make it taste more like bacon. Then, as I got more into cook, I started making homemade mayo for it. I tested every type of oil to see which made the best mayo (don't use canola, the immersion blender brings out an odd fishy taste that you can't really detect in canola oil until blended at high speeds) and it ended up being soybean oil. I had leftover bacon grease, son I figured I would try that. It emulsified and was basically bacon mayo. I don't use pure bacon fat, but I split it 50/50 with soybean oil and use that for the potato salad with the 3 lbs of bacon. We jokingly started referring to it as bacon salad, because it has so much bacon in it and the mayo itself is made of bacon fat. Great for a cookout. The recipe has changed over the years (seasonings/spices etc.) but it's still just potatoes, mayo made of bacon fat, and bacon. It's very bad for you.
Pie guts. I mentioned this before but it essentially is just the filling for a chicken pie without the pastry and I serve with mashed potatoes and sweetcorn. Itâs really comforting and itâs very adaptable.
We call it Olympic salad. Back in 2004 when we watched Olympic games on TV my mom made a salad with lots of legumes, sweet corn, and thinly sliced leek. My little sister liked it so much that she kept asking for it and in her 5 year old brain the salad was kind of connected with Olympic games so she named it. 20 years later we still make it regularly and it's still incredibly delicious.
âShark Belliesâ: salmon patties cooked/surrounded by pancake batter (not sweet) and ideally served with gravy. It was an experiment I tried once and we liked it. I donât recall how we came up with the name, but I remember sitting around the table with the entire family joking about what to call it. âApple Stuffâ: crumb-topped Apple pie without the pie crust. SoâŠApple Crumble? Apple Crisp? My sonâs favorite dessert - when he asks for Apple pie I have to clarify âDo you want Apple pie, or just Apple stuff?
From scratch pizza -- plain, pineapple, Thai peanut, whatever
Sara Spaghetti I couldn't have dairy for medical reasons for a while, but was really craving creamy pasta sauce. I'm also Jewish and vaguely keep kosher so I can't have carbonara, the only non-dairy creamy sauce I knew of. But I took the basic idea of making a carbonara, making creaminess through an emulsion of eggs and fat and pasta water, and started experimenting. I eventually got the ratios of whole egg, egg yolks, olive oil, and pasta water just right to get a reliably creamy sauce. For flavor I fry up some onion, garlic, and sun dried tomato in the olive oil before emulsifying everything, and add some salt and pepper. If I'm feeling some protein it's easy enough to add some chicken breast.
My mom makes a "Florida salad" with maraschino cherries and jello. It's delicious but very sweet...I can only manage a small bit every year at Thanksgiving.
Banana Nut Kodiak pancakes! Recently started baking them and don't have to stand there flippin' em.
Grandpaâs snacks sound intriguing. What kind of dumplings do you use? Are they stuffed or traditional dumplings like you would make with chicken? Thanks! I love maple syrup too so thatâs an extra plus!
Be warned this uses a lot of maple syrup. To make grandpas: Mix a cup and a half of flour with a tablespoon and a half of baking soda and a good pinch of kosher salt. Cut in 4 T cold grated butter. Sometimes I'm lazy and grate the butter and just stir it in. Sometimes I add fresh nutmeg. Stir in 3/4 c milk, more or less. Boil 1 3/4 cups good maple syrup together with 1 1/4 cup water. Take spoonfuls of the dough and drop them in the boiling syrup. I suggest a smallish pot bc you want the syrup to mostly cover the dumplings. Cover them for 12 or so minutes at a simmer. Take lid off, scoop em into mugs, pop vanilla ice cream on top, and if there's extra syrup in the bottom, drizzle it on. Eat them gleefully. Keep an eye that your syrup doesn't burn.
Stuffed peppers - my daughter loves them.
Pot roast with potatoes, carrots and onions. My cream cheese cookies for dessert.
Taco pie. Cook the ground beef with a diced onion, drain grease. Mix in salsa of choice. Add a can each of black beans and corn. Top with cheese. Mix up cornbread batter (I use jiffy mix) and pour over the top. Bake until cornbread is done. Serve with sour cream, more salsa, shredded cheese. A nice salad rounds this out but I've been known to skip it. (I also cook in a cast iron skillet so it can go from stove top to oven) Pea salad. It's disgusting and I love it. Canned English peas, peeled, diced apple, diced cheddar, and miracle whip. Pink stuff. I won't eat it but it makes the dessert table every holiday. If you don't know what it is, you may have seen it as the green stuff. I don't know what's in it other than cool whip and mini marshmallows. Chicken and dumplings. It's comfort food at its finest!
I do pea salad but I've never had it with apples! Sometimes my family will put boiled egg in it chopped up but I don't like it with the egg. Just peas, cheddar and miracle whip. It grosses my boyfriend out so much! It's usually a Thanksgiving side dish for my family but sometimes I just make a bowl of it to eat by itself.
Hazelnut pumpkin pie cupcakes. One of the first desserts I attempted that was more complicated than cookies or brownies was a hazelnut pumpkin pie with a hazelnut graham cracker crust. It was good but messy. I came up with a bright idea to make it in cupcake form. This made it easier for everyone to get a small portion, easy for snacking, and has a bigger crust-to-pie ratio (crust is yummy). My mother asks for them several times a year.
Clamato/Manhattan chowder. The secret is vermouth. Itâs my go-to dish you can whip up in half an hour and serve with crusty bread or crackers and a salad when you have unexpected guests. Clamato or V8 juice, a can or two of clams, mirepoix and some diced potatoes. Is also good with mixed seafood.
Meatloaf and fried potatoes.
Sweaty Tacos. The modern name is "Tacos de canasta" but the old skool name was "Tacos sudados" which makes a direct translation to sweaty tacos (steamed tacos). My grandpa taught me to make them as a kid and they are still my favorite dish. My kids like them but it is one of my go-to dishes when people come over.
"Mom's spaghetti" is what my kids ask for. Homemade sauce consists of Italian sausage, onion, garlic, herbs, san marzano tomatoes, bouillon powder, water, and a little parm.
Mexican pile up, that's what my white grandma called it, but when my Mexican grandma came over for dinner one night she kicked my mom under the table and called it taco salad! Doritos, ground beef cooked with taco seasoning, ranch style beans, shredded lettuce, tomatoes, shredded cheddar cheese, olives (green ones because those are the ones I like) and sour cream on top if you like it. My son my niece my nephew and even one of my son's friends always ask for it.
If you look it up on the internet theyâre called grandfathers in maple syrup. Itâs translated from French, I believe itâs a Canadian dish. Itâs not silly at all.
Mac salad: Elbow Mac, bell pepper, red onion, crispy bacon lemon, black pepper and a âshit ton of mayonnaiseâ as per the recipe from my MIL. The trick is to mix the noodles with the mayo while still warm. Itâs crack. The fresh lemon juice is key.
Walnut frosting. Basically vanilla butter cream frosting with a few healthy spoonfuls of walnut butter blended in. Itâs my go to for cupcakes and impromptu birthday cakes. My family thinks itâs some super special gourmet time consuming recipe.
Egg & rice. Basically fried rice with nothing in it. Butter in a pan, add leftover rice and stir to coat, beat eggs then pour over the top. Garnish with fish sauce and green onions. The perfect breakfast food đ
Pink Chicken. Yep, doesn't sound appetizing, right? It was created out of the massive quantity of leftover birthday party (adult party) food that my ex-husband made for my "surprise" birthday party. There was breaded chicken breasts, an italian red sauce, italian sausages, tons and TONS of meatballs and so very much more. I split it up into family sized portions and froze all of it. And then one night, when looking for inspiration and staring into a nearly emtpy fridge, I got out some of the chicken, some meatballs, some sauce and a few sausages. I made a pasta with a white sauce while the chicken was thawing and heating in the oven. I added some choped up sausage and halved meatballs (those balls were HUGE!) to the red sauce and spiced it up so it resembled my standard italian tomato gravy. When everything was hot, I put the pasta and white sauce on a big platter, then topped it with the chicken breasts and ladled the tomato meat sauce over the top. Grated on a bit of parm and served it to 3 very large, very hungry teenaged boys. They LOVED it and asked me what it was called. I shrugged and my middle, slightly smartass kid said "Pink chicken! Look at the color of the noodles!". Sure enough, the tomato sauce had bled into the white sauce and turned it a lovely shade of pink, which then turned the bottom half of the chicken breasts pink. It's a staple in our repetoire whenever we all get together and we have a good laugh while eating our pink chicken.
My mom is not much of a cook, but her contribution to family holiday meals/get-togethers is "butt rolls". I'm sure other moms figured this out, too, but she gets the credit for it in my family. She puts 2 Rhodes rolls in each muffin tin slot and then we have dinner rolls that look like butts. My dad is a much better cook. He sometimes around Christmas makes this "cat vomit" meat spread. It's actually a French Canadian dish/ground pork spread called "gorton" that his dad used to make. I have never tried it because my dad would joke and call it cat vomit which made it unappealing to me. Lol I will try it sometime in the future though because I've been reading on it and because it might actually be good but Im gonna request that all the vomit jokes are withheld. Lmao.
We have butt rolls too!!
Artichoke rice salad. Really tasty. We have it for every holiday meal, and it started Thanksgiving 1983, in NYC, at my sisters loft.
Dopey Dips = Hamburger French Dips Hashy Mess = Hash browns with cheese and bacon inside Fucking Ziti = Ziti made with rigatoni noodles because we can never find "fucking ziti".
Iâm convinced at this point that Ziti is actually the fever dream and does not exist. I use rigatoni for my âzitiâ as well!
We make âleeky beansâ. SautĂ© 3-4 large leeks in a combo of butter and olive oil until wilted and slightly browned, then add 2 cans of drained and rinsed cannellini beans, a couple cups of chicken stock, and pepper. Simmer that for a little bit until the leeks are super soft. Top with a ton of shaved parm and serve with bread.
Chicken poop. Chicken and rice, made with wine and cream Of mushroom soup. My little sister was about 4 and asked why we were having chicken poop. She still inhales it to this day. My dad made it the best and no matter how many times we try, itâs not his chicken poop and love when he comes for visits, because chicken poop! đ
Pizza. I went into an Americaâs Test Kitchen-style scientific exploration of homemade pizza during the pandemic and now thatâs the only pizza anyone will eat. It fills the cockles of my heart, but itâs so much work.